Overview

piCube is software for driving an 8x8x8 RGB LED cube connected to a
Raspberry Pi via the standard GPIO pins. It runs under Linux and works with all
models of the Pi - right from the first Model B that was released up to the
recent Pi Zero.

Cube & test fleet.
From left to right: Zero, 3B, 2B, 1Br2, 1Br1

Environment

piCube will run on the standard
Raspbian software image. However, to achieve stable refresh times a
kernel with the
RT Pre-empt patch should be used. The installation instructions
show how to install a pre-compiled version of the patched kernel.

Installation

Why Linux?

Although there are a number of real-time operating systems available for the
Pi such as ChibiOS/RT and FreeRTOS, I wanted to see if I could connect my
cube to a general purpose Pi running Linux. The Pi can then be used to
do other tasks at the same time and even integrate devices such as a
weather station with a local cube display.